A Second Look--July 13, 2016

There haven't been any huge changes in my outdoor world this past week. Day lilies still dominate the blooms and hot and muggy days out number the cooler ones. To make it really feel like summer, the warm afternoons are now filled with gnats. Really annoying, but beats the black flies my sister deals with in Maine.

Here a few things I saw this week 

during a second look.

Skipper butterfly on a cone flower. If you look closely, you can see its proboscis extended into the flower. No matter how often I see an insect collecting nectar, I am still excited every time I see it. This time was no exception.

Marigold. All of the marigolds we have this year were reseeded from last years flowers.

Some giant mushrooms/fungus showed up in the yard this week. Notice the 12"  (30 cm) ruler for scale.

Close by there was another set of yellow ones. Once again, notice the 12" ruler for scale.

Queen Anne's Lace with black spot. I studied the spot or lack there of a couple of years ago. If you're interested in the results, you can read here.

Day lilies

The wren's nest finally has eggs in it. I suspect that there will be more.

There have been a lot of rabbits around this year.

Zinnias and marigolds.